Brokerages Set Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) PT at $145.00

Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus recommendation of "Hold" by the fifteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $144.75.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on YUM. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a "hold" rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,764 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $245,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 38.7% during the 1st quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 4,091 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $567,000 after buying an additional 1,142 shares during the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.4% during the 1st quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 2,721 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $377,000 after buying an additional 651 shares during the last quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 6,935 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $962,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PFG Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,136,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock traded up $1.04 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $140.10. 2,140,479 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,936,988. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $137.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $130.39. Yum! Brands has a 1-year low of $115.53 and a 1-year high of $143.24. The firm has a market cap of $39.44 billion, a PE ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The firm's revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is 47.94%.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.